I suppose the gamble is that he only Sucked at Sunderland because he insists his playing style should alliterate with the name of his club. After all, he was Amazing for AZ Alkmaar, so maybe he would Roar at RedBull, or show his Power at Portland, or prove a UberMan at United, or The Terror of Toronto. But for his sake we should hope he did not go to Sporting.....
Wow! Think how much money he would want to get paid if he had scored more than two goals in two years for his club. That's a "Let him continue sucking at Sunderland" kind of "want". Altidore is demanding a salary in the $5-6 million range, sources told ESPNFC.com's Jeff Carlisle
I have been a big Jozy believer.....but when you look at his resume it's time to wonder. Villareal, Xerex...or whatever it was, Hull, in Turkey, Sunderland...just not very good. He has done fairly well for the Nats, but if I was a club GM.....no way can I give this guy money. He literally has done nothing outside of Holland. He has actually sucked pretty hard. Now comes someone listing all the excuses, issues, bad luck at each stop. Guess what? When you have to do that after four or five clubs it's time to take off the "hope glasses" and start dealing with reality. He has been bad outside of 18 mths in Holland. Not average, OK, but bad.
If PDX did this it would be official... ....PDX would be the bluster capital of MLS with Paulson and Porter. A lot of bluster and not all that much there when psuh comes to shove. Hmmm, Maybe Jozy is perfect for them.
Perhaps this is more appropriate to the rivalry thread but welcome to the history of the Portland franchise - lots of talk with precious little in the trophy case.
If it's true that he's asking for ~$6M, he's a nutjob. How could he possibly think he deserves a 100% raise after the last year and a half he's had? He should be happy with making the same money he is now--at best--or he can piss off.
But he can't piss of Klinsmann with a different player. And he is the type of person that I think would spend the extra money to get Jozy just to spite JK.
It matters to the players. Some players just won't play on that stuff. Its one reason why Sounder fans never saw Henry play in Seattle when NYRB came to town as he did not want to play on it.
Keane doesn't quite understand where soccer is compared to other sports in the US in terms of making those demands.
One half of me doesn't want to see MLS teams spend that kind of money on the guy and continue to perpetuate this overpaying for expats dynamic. The other half of me really wants to see every possible USMNT player in MLS to annoy Klinsmann. So conflicted.
Notice how JK was excited a player of Gerrard's quality was going to come to MLS. Not Kaka, not Defoe, not Villa, maybe Lampard, etc....but he only got excited when a real quality guy went to LA....wink, wink. May seem a reach at first, but when you throw togther all of JK's other little digs and cheap shots, for absolutely no reason and unprovoked with regards to Landon, you can't help but see the small man acting small again. He really can't stand that LD is consdidered a star here....and it's just gotta be killing him that it all isn't about him, the guy who deserves the praise. It also tells me that he does know deep down that he made a major error by not taking LD, amd it manifests itself with him taking these shots....whether subconcious or not. He isn't mentally strong or secure enough to admit it, so he acts out like this. Yes, after a career in upper management, dealing with thousands of people, in a job you can only be successful in long term if you can read, understand and communicate with people I feel pretty comfortable saying it. Have experienced it all. The signs have been there, and continue to be.
That's weird, I saw Henry play on the artificial turf in Portland a number of times. It's almost like the quality of the artificial turf matters more than artificial/natural. I won't deny that it may influence some players, though.
True, it was the first, and as of yet only time i've spent more than a few minutes there. Read the thing for hours. Closest feeling I can get to my dream of a "Atiba Hutchenson to IMFC" thread...
I'd sure as hell hope so. If you're given a check to spend 5M/Y plus a transfer fee and you spend it on Altidore, with all due respect to Jozy, that's a terrible allocation of financial resources. And it would be quite dumb. As has been brought up and anyone who's followed Jozy knows, he was at his best in a system like AZ employs, quick linking, numbers forwards, lots of movement, a typical free flowing Ered attack where the ball is kept on the ground and played through the middle. That's pretty much as far from TFC as one can get. If the idea is to boot balls at his head, ala Sunderland, well we've seen how well that works out with a guy like Jozy. With Gilberto and Dike, it doesn't even make sense to spend 5-6M/Y on Jozy, go get a top winger or ACM. TFC, if they were to sign Jozy is replicating the mistakes of Sunderland, too many strikers with a poor midfield and flank play who can't provide service. Just arguing Mike can provide service to Jozy is a ridiculously elementary argument, not that you made it. Top MLS teams IMO for Jozy would be RSL/FCD/NE/SKC. People need to look more at a system and strength of the roster rather than "USNTer" and jersey sales.
I agree with you for most part, except we don't know what formation/system Vanney will use. Vanney stuck with 4-4-2 because that's what the team was built and too late to change the system in last gasp attempt to make the playoffs. TFC is rumoured to be looking for a CAM, though a lot depends on when Defoe gets sold